Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 27, 1993 TAG: 9306290293
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I thought I was going to `come out' and be happy, but it's been pure hell," the Northside High School senior said.
McCulley's sexual orientation has emerged as an issue in a bitter fight between his mother and stepfather over custody of his 11-year-old half brother.
Legal experts say the Roanoke County case is unusual because custody fights involving claims of homosexuality usually deal with the sexual orientation of a parent, not a sibling.
In this case, Michael W. Scott seeks custody of his 11-year-old son on grounds that his estranged wife and her openly-gay son from a previous marriage would create an "unwholesome" environment for the younger child.
Sandra O. Scott is fighting for joint custody, saying there is no reason why her two sons shouldn't live under the same roof.
"How can a judge take my son from me because my other son is gay?" she said.
Michael Scott declined to be interviewed for this story. He referred all questions to his attorney, Harry F. Bosen Jr., who did not respond to several phone messages left at his office.
Virginia is one of six states in which laws or court decisions make homosexuality a cause for finding a parent unfit to raise children.
Earlier this month, a circuit court judge in Henrico County awarded custody of a 2-year-old boy to his grandmother because his mother lives with her lesbian lover.
The Roanoke County case may be unique because it seeks to brand a heterosexual parent unfit because one of her children is gay.
But some gay rights advocates doubt the Roanoke County case will lead to a landmark decision because the custody battle could turn on other accusations, such as infidelity.
Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue has given Michael Scott temporary custody of his 11-year-old son. Trabue has allowed the boy to stay at his mother's house one night each week.
A custody hearing is set for July 15.
Jay McCulley was 3 years old when his mother married Michael W. Scott.
McCulley said he had a close relationship with his stepfather, whom he called Dad. His stepfather intially remained supportive after McCulley and his mother moved out of the family's Northeast Roanoke County home in February.
Then McCulley announced he was gay.
Sandra Scott accepted her son's sexual orientation, but McCulley said his stepfather ordered him never to set foot in his house again.
"We were really, really close, and now he has turned against me," McCulley said. "He said he's going through me to get at my mother."
In court papers, Michael Scott's attorneys have sought to portray Sandra Scott as an unfit mother by claiming that McCulley has turned her home into a virtual gay bath house.
The attorneys claim that McCulley's homosexual friends are "constantly in and out of the home," that homosexual activity takes place in the home and that pornographic videos are shown on the television.
Sandra Scott denied the allegations, saying her son has gay and straight friends and that the most risque video that has ever been in the house has been "Pretty Woman" starring Julia Roberts.
Scott said her older son's sexual orientation has nobearing on her fitness to raise her younger son.
"These kids have been brought up together for 11 years," she said. "My husband was not complaining how I was raising the boys when he was out of town all the time on business. What is the difference now?"
Suzanne Goldberg, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, said she knew of no legal precedent of courts awarding custody based on a sibling's sexual orientation.
"There's no question that a parent's relationship with a child should be neither severed nor limited because of the sexual orientation of a sibling," Goldberg said.
Virginia is one of the most restrictive states in the nation when it comes to homosexual parenting. In 1985, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a gay father who exposed his daughter to "his immoral and illicit" relationship was unfit to have custody.
Steve Pershing, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said the legal issues in the Roanoke County case may differ, but the potential bias is the same.
"To the effect that courts base their decisions on sexual preference alone, in our view, they are reacting to bias rather than to reason."
The Roanoke County case may turn on other issues. Michael Scott has accused Sandra Scott of adultery, and she has suggested that he has used illegal drugs in front of the children. Both have denied the accusations.
Sandra Scott said her husband was trying to drive a wedge between her two sons.
"I love them both. What am I supposed to do, tell one of them to get out of the house?"
by CNB